Anastasia

Movie Info

Genre(s): Animation  |  Family/Kids  |  Musical

Written by: Susan Gauthier
Bruce Graham
Bob Tzudiker
Noni White

Directed by: Don Bluth
Gary Goldman

Release Date:
Theatrical: November 21, 1997
DVD: November 16, 1999

Running Time: 94 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: G

Starring Meg Ryan, John Cusack, Kelsey Grammer, Christopher Lloyd, Hank Azaria, Bernadette Peters, Kirsten Dunst, and Angela Lansbury

From St. Petersburg, Russia to Paris, France, join Anya on an epic journey of breathtaking animated action and intrigue. (20th Century Fox)

Also On Metacritic

FILM: All Dogs Go to Heaven Titan A.E.

Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 9.6 (out of 10) based on 21 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Uncanny Garlic gave it an8:
Anastasia is an excellent film with a great story and probably the most general audience appeal of traditionally animated film outside of Disney. The underlying themes of the plot are very familiar to Disney fans, being a self discovery journey of a spunky princess, but it's well executed and has good interactions between characters. The voice acting is surprisingly good for most characters, with most actors getting into character very well and voicing their character in a manner which makes them unrecognizable. Hank Azaria does an amazing job with the comic bat, giving the character the perfect voice and delivery, probably being the unexpected standout. Christopher Loyd surprised me by doing a good job changing his voice to be that of Rasputin, with his signature yelling being the only thing giving him away, though it's not disrupting. Meg Ryan, on the other hand, plays Anastasia in the classic Meg Ryan way, making no changes in how she speaks for the character. This makes her performance a bit disrupting, though fans of Meg Ryan will likely disagree, but all of the animation fits the voices, including Ryan's, perfectly. Animation in the film is crisp, fluid, and beautiful with wonderfully illustrated backgrounds. The one flaw of the film is it's use of computer generated (CG) images which, like in most traditionally animated films, stick out. It's not to say that the CG doesn't look good but merely that it doesn't seamlessly mesh with the traditional animation. The movement in the film feels wonderfully natural, with more quirky minor movements made by characters than seems to be in most films. It's musicals are generally good, with a few greats and some misses. "Once Upon a December" really stands out as the height of the movies musical scenes and scores while "A Rumor in St. Petersburg", the first musical scene in the film, was mediocre. The "In the Dark of the Night" scene causes me to laugh every time I watch the film because of how out of place the music seems, despite how the good music was. All in all, this is arguably Don Bluth's best animated film with "The Secret of NIMH" being the competition. The film brushes or even matches the lower edge of the Disney renaissance, being more enjoyable than "The Little Mermaid" for me, despite having more technical problems. If you're looking for a fun and enjoyable animated film for the whole family, I'd fully recommend this film.

Amme T gave it a10:
Fantastic film. Breath taking for any ages. The music is catchy with brilliant lyrics. It has character and is interesting.

Christina H. gave it a10:
This has to be the best Disney movie I've seen, with a good plot, great characters, and catchy songs, who can't love it?

Sally R. gave it a10:
It is brilliant. Not at all scarring for kids, in your face Thomas D.

Thomas D. gave it an8:
It's scarry for kids. The bad guy head comes off. He falls a part. What's that all abot?

Dawn gave it a10:
The music takes me to magical mind trips, it creates dreams,and makes me appreciate the moment.

loves it gave it a10:
I loved the movie it was funny how anastasia and dimitri always argued and i loved bartok the music was great.

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